You know what are very important to almost everyone? Teeth. Yes, those things that protrude from your gums which assists in eating, opening packages, foreplay, or smiling. Most people are born with them, and fewer are lucky to keep them throughout the duration of their life. Teeth can be a hassle and a blessing. Society has used them as a mark of beauty and we all know how that goes… the whiter the better. Brush, floss, smile, not too many sweets, say cheese. We hear these things growing up and we take them for granted except when we are at risk for losing a tooth. Well, as beautiful and useful as teeth are, you know what sucks more than almost anything? A toothache and a loose permanent tooth.
When you are done with all of your baby teeth, you are told that the next set are called permanent teeth. With this in mind, these teeth are literally a part of you. They are with you through thick and thin (depending on how much you use them to eat with) and they never seem to let you down. When a tooth starts to ache though, that is a pain like no other. You start to question how something that has always been so loyal to you could start to cause you so much pain. Like tooth… what you doin? You are supposed to help me gain nutrients and whatever else you were told to be good for, but now you are just causing me debilitating pain. You can’t focus, you feel bad all over, there may even be tears. The worst part of the toothache is that the pain is usually deeply rooted and nothing you can easily fix.
Though a toothache is problematic, you can use things to mask the pain and maybe even get it fixed, but the loose tooth is a little more tricky. Like, this tooth is yours, you just knew it would always be there for you, I mean for goodness sake it’s called a PERMANENT tooth. When this tooth becomes loose you start to worry for many different reasons. You start realizing that everyone who knows you seems to know you with that tooth. Pictures you’ve taken may have had that tooth in it. When it is gone what will you do? With the loose tooth, anything you do reminds you that you and your tooth are not as you once were. You go to eat but realize you have to be careful because that tooth could pop out at any moment. You can’t talk the same because you might feel the tooth and it causes weird feelings.. Even rough housing with friends seems to become an issue because one wrong move and BAM, you lost your precious tooth all because you wanted to play with someone else.
The biggest problem with a loose tooth is that you realize one day that it will eventually be gone. You know that when that tooth is gone you will not smile the same. You might not speak the same. There will always be a spot in your mouth where the tooth used to be. If you get a fake tooth it wont be the same as the real thing. Nothing can replace that tooth because of all it has helped you with in life. You start to wonder if you caused the tooth to become loose. Did you brush it enough? Did you floss enough? Was that snickers the one that you should have opted out of eating? You feel guilty but you know it will not be there forever, regardless of what you were told when it started to grow on you. Now the decision most of us have to make is one of pain now or to let nature just let the tooth fall out. If we let the tooth just fall out, we do not know how long the tooth will cause you an issue. Do you really want to live in a situation where you know something that grew on you is literally falling apart? Especially when you don’t know how long this might take? Or do you make the decision to pull the tooth out quickly? This is a popular route, and one that I gained appreciation for. It may be painful to break it off, but in the end it is better for you and the tooth. You don’t string it along, constantly living in an uncomfortable situation hoping for something other than the inevitable. You just end it quickly after you have lived in denial. Though this hurts, there is beauty in the end. You may have an empty space for the rest of your life, that no other tooth can ever fill… You may have a different smile… but you do learn to love yourself again. As far as the tooth, we are taught when we are younger that a tooth has value. Whether you get a dollar or three for a tooth, the implications show that though you may lose something that will always be missed, the value of it does not go away. We simply grow to realize that some beautiful things end, but it doesn’t devalue all you’ve been through. Funny how you can learn so much from a tooth…
